


Coping Mechanisms

by Mez10000



Category: Luigi's Mansion (2001), Super Mario Bros., Super Paper Mario (Game), Super Smash Brothers
Genre: Ambiguous Relationship, Feels, M/M, basically Luigi's reaction to super smash bros
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-08
Updated: 2015-06-08
Packaged: 2018-04-03 10:01:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4096738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mez10000/pseuds/Mez10000
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Periodically, disembodied hands come from nowhere, abduct the biggest heroes of the land and disappear without explanation. They are powerless to stop it, clueless why it does happen...and all too terrified of the next time. But in between, in those rare quiet moments, how do you find a way to cope?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coping Mechanisms

The first time it happened, no one in the Mushroom Kingdom knew what was going on. A mysterious disembodied hand descending from the heavens frightened them, causing the Toads to swarm and protect Princess Peach. One enterprising Toad - believing that, as usual, their efforts would be in vain – set off to tell Mario that the Princess needed saving again. It would just save everyone's time if Mario were working to save Peach before the kidnapping technically happened...

But what the Toad saw, was Mario himself being abducted, kicking and shouting in the grasp of that gloved hand, disappearing up into the heavens.

Meanwhile, Luigi was peacefully snoozing, having found a tree to shelter under on the otherwise peaceful and fine day. He was blissfully ignorant of the hand that plucked him from the shady spot until it was too late.

A few weeks later, the plumbers were returned as suddenly as they were taken. They never spoke about their disappearance, and the general population of the Mushroom Kingdom chalked it up as one more weird event in their long line of odd occurrences. Mario, as always took it in stride and was back to his old self within a day.

Luigi was not. He kept his silence, but there was a slight tremble where there was none before, a hesitation to throw himself into the fray after his brother. Some called him cowardly, but he pretended not to notice. Where were they in the chaos? Safe and sound in their homes, thinking nothing of the disappearances. He learnt when he had returned: not a single person in the Mushroom Kingdom had tried to help them.

“Well, if anyone could get out, it'd be Mario,” one Toad had explained with an excited squeak, and the others had agreed so readily that Luigi gave up on asking.

Luigi tried to take up hobbies, burying the events in the back of his mind with every tournament going – karting, golf...but it was on the tennis court that he first met him...Waluigi. At first, they were bitter rivals, throwing themselves into match after match with feverish anticipation. For Luigi, he felt like he could finally be free again, could throw himself fully into the simple game without hurting himself or anyone else. Smashing tennis balls was far safer than smashing... _other_ things...it was easier to just block it all out.

Off the court, however, Luigi's nightmares continued; the only reliable thing after the abduction. Children and mercenaries alike were brought low by green fire; strange weaponry more powerful than anything seen by the Mushroom Kingdom before or since...

And one night, he was shaken out of the terrors by gangly limbs and could not find it in himself to even pretend to be angry.

The tennis tournament had been long over, and despite resolutely not talking about the abduction, Luigi and Waluigi had found themselves somewhat closer to friends than rivals. They both appreciated the silences in the other's company, so while Luigi read, Waluigi tended to the healthy crop of piranha plants in his garden that were so deadly yet fascinating. They still kept up the pretence of rivalry around other Mushroom Kingdom inhabitants – even the cowardly brother could not be seen openly associating with Waluigi, and the thought often made Luigi sad. Waluigi never pressured him for details of what had happened, but still stood by and tried to calm his nerves when Luigi saw the small things that elicited such a reaction from him – crumpled green cloth, battered children's toys, a clump of fur, a sparking fuse...there seemed to be no pattern behind it, but the most innocent of things could elicit anything from a yell to trembling to hours of uncontrollable sobbing.

It was on a good day – the kind where neither Luigi nor Waluigi had anything much better to do than tinker around with machines aimlessly together - that the heavens opened, and the monstrous hand scooped up Luigi for the second time. Waluigi was too stunned to register anything more than the look of horror on Luigi's face before both he and the hand were gone.

* * *

 

“I tried,” Waluigi croaked, holding Luigi's trembling form in his arms.

This time, it had been worse. Bigger. Both Peach and Bowser had been taken, and this implied that whatever Luigi had returned from, it had been worse than the first time. Waluigi had tried to follow them, but wherever they had gone, it seemed far removed from the Mushroom Kingdom, beyond the reach of Sarasaland and outside the knowledge of even the weirder Diamond City inhabitants. There seemed to be no way to follow, only wait anxiously until Luigi was returned. He had often doubted _if_ Luigi would be returned...and what state he would be in when he was given back. Well, now he knew.

“I wanted to find you,” Waluigi added. _To protect you...to bring you home..._

Luigi froze. “Nononononono-”

It was as if Luigi had lost all sense of where he was, eyes staring into the middle-distance at a horror he couldn't articulate. All Waluigi knew is that he had definitely said the wrong thing. And now he didn't know what to do or say to snap him back to the present.

“Mr. Eyeballs!” he shouted in a panic.

As absurd though it was, it broke through Luigi's haze, snapping his focus back to the present.

“Eyeballs?” he asked weakly.

“Have you looked in a mirror?” Waluigi muttered defensively.

Luigi gave a weak chuckle. “Mr. Eyeballs...huh...”

* * *

 

They were always dimly expecting that there would be a third time, even if they never spoke of it or directly acknowledged the fear. But as time passed, nightmares faded, and some kind of hope sprang – maybe it was only the twice? Perhaps nothing like this would ever happen again.

Of course, that hope would only prove to be false. Just as suddenly as before, the skies opened. This time, Waluigi was not with the younger plumber, having taken a trip to visit Diamond City and catch up with Wario. He liked the city well enough; the citizens did not shun them as others so often did, but the soil and climate was so poor for growing his favoured plants, and after an extended stay, he often started finding the place unbearably boring. Which probably explained Wario's various money-snatching hijinks, if he were honest with himself.

When the skies opened, and a hand plucked up Wario, the boredom and the little blossom of hope abruptly broke. Waluigi's heart sunk – he was too much a pessimist to hope Luigi had escaped this fate – if anything, the disembodied hands were selecting _more_ people, not less...

Waluigi let out a wounded shout at the sky that insisted on taking everyone he cared about, and forcing them into acts they refused to speak of after. He was not entirely sure what he shouted himself, though some residents of Diamond City seemed more shocked by the outburst than by the abduction of Wario...and then he heard a laugh. A maniacal, deep laugh. Then a voice.

“ _A volunteer?”_

Then, for Waluigi, the world became a haze of white...

* * *

 

Luigi leapt up on a platform, narrowly dodging the grenade's explosion below, and ran towards the bell-jar sitting on the floor. At first, he had underestimated their power, just one of the many new items littering the floor this particular abduction. But he very quickly learnt that they had the potential for a lot of power, and they should be held with the same wary regard as the small white and red spheres that housed strange creatures.

He seized up the trophy case and held it aloft, his aid coming in a flash of white. Luigi could only gawp in wordless horror as he saw an all too familiar purple figure. Waluigi turned, and met his gaze with a grin, before rushing the agent in military camouflage currently readying an attack, kicking him to the ground and stomping mercilessly.

Luigi regained enough of his wits to barrel into the swift blue animal on his other side while he was still caught off guard, punching the creature up into the air and sailing off into the distance. When he turned, Waluigi was watching, having already dealt with the spy himself. Luigi's heart was in his mouth – it was bad enough that his brother and Peach knew of this, they lived through it themselves, they understood the mercilessness of the battles, but he never wanted anyone else to witness this vicious _thing_ he became, dispatching his foes on instinct.

All he got was a tiny nod, with a strange look in his eyes, before Waluigi was forced to vanish the same way he appeared.

* * *

 

When the fighters were deposited back in the Mushroom Kingdom, Luigi ran immediately. He just wanted to curl up alone and try to forget everything. Except this time, the one person he had counted on to help him get through the terrors...he knew. Waluigi _knew_ what he was capable of...he would not be interested in helping Luigi anymore. No, he would be terrified, and Luigi could not hold that against him.

So he ran to a tiny little cottage that not even Mario knew he had, closed the doors and the window shutters and collapsed onto the single tiny bed in the corner.

When Waluigi returned, he was torn. Wario was his friend, and it had been his first time dealing with the event, but he knew Luigi would be especially torn up about this time. The look on Luigi's face back then was burnt into Waluigi's memory – it was beyond frightened. It was terrified and guilty and angry all at once...

It was ultimately chance that he happened to meet Wario first. His usual bravado was in place, but Waluigi could tell that he was a little shaken up by his time in the fights. Still, he waved Waluigi away, claiming he was going back to Diamond City to see what 'those idiots' had done with Warioware Inc. while he had been gone. Waluigi left him to it – he knew full well that despite their minor troubles, the others at Warioware HQ would look after Wario without being asked outright.

By the time he was searching for Luigi, no one knew where the green-clad man was. A few Toads had apparently seen him get back safely, and saw him run off, but beyond that, there were no ideas where he had gone. Waluigi checked everywhere he knew Luigi might lurk, and even checked his own house on the off chance he had headed there to hide. But there was no sign of him.

Waluigi was getting more and more worried by the hour. The last time, Luigi had sought _him_ out and had stayed under the radar with him for days until the plumber had calmed down enough to deal with other people. The fact that Luigi was avoiding him was very troubling. Waluigi was getting more and more desperate, which is why he started going through people Luigi knew more than Mario. Admittedly, it was a short list, but he remembered Luigi mentioning the time a few years back where he had won a mansion, but there had been a few problems with it, and he had needed the help of a scientist...he could start there, at least.

Waluigi approached Evershade Valley with some apprehension – maybe Luigi had chosen to hide here? After all, it was the last place Waluigi would have normally thought to look for him – the area felt really creepy and unsettling. But he did find a small bunker where the professor he'd heard of was tinkering away...he was much _shorter_ than Waluigi had thought...

“Hello?” he said tentatively, not sure how to broach the subject of the missing plumber.

“Hello, hello, come in, sit! You're just in time to test out my new device!” the scientist rambled, his tuft of hair wobbling comically with his highly animated speech.

“No, I was..”

“I know, you were after one of your very own, everyone wants to try it out. You're the first today, lucky for you, my boy!”

As he spoke, the professor tinkered away with a small square gadget that he pushed in Waluigi's hands.

“Well, go on, then! Turn it on!”

Waluigi, deciding it was useless to protest, pressed the button marked 'On' in an untidy scrawl. The box bleeped. And kept up a low, steady stream of beeps at a constant rate.

“Well, that is rather odd...hmm...”

“What is?”

“It's detecting Gadd particles at a low level...but there's no source...”

Waluigi frowned. “Gadd particles?”

“Surely you've seen the hand that periodically kidnap people, boy? It emits Gadd particles. Discovered them myself," he beamed proudly. "You're holding the Handy Detector 1000, the first of it's kind! Soon, every household will have them to warn of hand-related abductions ahead of time!”

Waluigi blinked. Maybe this _would_ come in useful... “How sensitive is this thing?”

“Sensitive? It doesn't even work, yet, sonny,” Gadd sighed.

Waluigi thought fast. “I have a friend who's good with machines...I'm sure he could fix it,” he lied.

“Oh, take it, what's the harm in letting someone else take a crack at it?” the diminutive professor said amiably, waving Waluigi away, already turning to work on his next project.

Waluigi seized his chance and left hastily, with the Handy Detector 1000 safely in hand. He had a theory – that the hands had left some of the Gadd particles on him...or rather, that travelling between _dimensions_ had left a trace of the particles on both of them. Either way, if his theory was correct, Luigi would also have these particles, and he could be found with the device. But currently, it was still reading the particles from Waluigi...

Waluigi tinkered with the device a little, finding a little slide to toggle a visual display. The beeping was gone, now, but left a radar-like screen before him with two small dots, one in the centre of the screen, and one way off to a side of the display. He assumed the dot in the centre was was him, and moved the device around in an arc. The other dot moved like the needle of a compass, pointing the same direction no matter which way he turned. It might not be Luigi – for all he knew, he could be closer to Bowser or Wario or even Peach or Mario...but it at least gave him somewhere to start. He followed the dot.

It took hours until he found an unassuming little derelict cottage out in the middle of nowhere. At first glance, it looked shabby and uninhabited, with tall thick weeds and peeling paintwork. But looking closely, he saw little traces of recent use – an indent of a foot in the soft soil and a slight disturbance of plants around the door. Someone had used it recently.

He peered in through a small slat in the shutters to see a little huddled ball of denim and green on a bed, in a room covered in a thick layer of dust. That was enough to get him knocking frantically at the shutters.

“Go away,” came the faint reply.

“Not until I know you're alright.”

Luigi made no move, except to curl up tighter.

Waluigi tried the door handle, surprising himself when it opened. He supposed there was no point in locking it, no one would come out all this way unless they had a good reason. He walked in, everything in him aching to soothe Luigi...but stood beside the bed, not quite how to do that.

“Why did you come?” Luigi asked in a cracked voice.

“Why wouldn't I?”

“Because you know what I can do..." Luigi whispered. "I'm not scared because I think I'll get hurt...”

“You think you'll hurt someone else,” Waluigi finished. “You idiot. Do you really think that that's who you really are? That any of that applies now you're back? You did what you had to to survive over there.”

“But I was _good_ at it. They called me 'The Green Flame'..."

Luigi's hand clenched into a fist as he trembled.

"I once called myself a name like that; The Green Thunder. I badly hurt Peach and Bowser...and my bro. That wasn't in that place. That was here. And it was so  _easy_. All I had to do was stop caring about my brother. After that, it all made sense...I could be who I really wanted to be and follow my own path. I didn't have anything left holding me back."

Waluigi frowned. He had never heard of this before.

"There is _always_ going to be that part of me that hurts everyone else,” Luigi admitted slowly.

“That doesn't sound like the Luigi I know. The one I know always looks out for his stupid older brother, and says please and thank you even to the really annoying Toads, and spends quiet afternoons _building_ , not destroying. Does he sound familiar, Eyeballs?”

“I try. I try so _hard_ , but I always get dragged into everything. They can call me a coward, but I don't care.”

“Liar. You care."

"N-no, I-"

"Have _I_ ever called you a coward?”

“What? No...you haven't...”

“Because _I_ don't care. Sometimes running away is smart. Not wanting to go...with your brother, that's very smart."

"So why did _you_ go through the effort to find me, if you don't care?"

"I care that you're too stubborn to accept help.”

“I don't deserve--”

Waluigi poked him in the shoulder, hard. “You don't get to decide. You're stuck with me, now. What did you plan on eating out here?”

Luigi fell silent.

“I didn't think so...if we sneak back to my house, I'll make something.”

It was a threat as much as an offer – Luigi knew how terrible the other was in the kitchen, and rarely allowed him in there. But it seemed to affect him, head twitching as though he wanted to look round.

“Okay,” Luigi mumbled quietly.

Waluigi knew it wasn't over, Luigi was far more stubborn than that, but he would count anything that wasn't sulking alone as an improvement right now. They could work out his issues properly together later, but Waluigi would make sure there was a later, first.

“Come on,” he said softly, offering Luigi his hand to help him up.

Luigi uncurled and looked at Waluigi for a moment, studying him. Whatever he was looking for, he seemed satisfied, and took the hand, hauling himself to his feet.

It would be a long road back to whatever qualified as normal for them, but for the first time in a long while, Luigi thought it might just be possible.

**Author's Note:**

> Unfriendly reminder that this ends before Super Smash Bros for Wii U/3DS happens. That is all.


End file.
